Water supply in the west isn't only about rain, or the lack thereof. A good deal of water scarcity issues have to do with decades-old policy and entrenched infrastructure. It’s a convoluted situation, and a team of reporters are working to make sense and put broader perspective on the western water crisis and the central role of the Colorado River.

Something as simple as using the bathroom can be a fraught experience for transgender students. They can be disciplined, harassed, even assaulted for using the gender they identify with. But now it's starting to change — and these students are leading the charge.

All the metric scales in the world — from those at a Polish deli to the big ones at a South African junkyard — are ultimately calibrated against a 125-year-old chunk of metal in a vault on the outskirts of Paris. Its mass is the definition of a kilogram. There’s just one problem: That chunk of metal seems to be losing weight.

He’s painted himself both as Stalin and as God, but this celebrated Russian-born artist insists that the church of art where he’s spent his life worshipping may just be a house of cards. What better way to celebrate that belief than by publishing a new magazine — about art.

We've heard lots about boundary disputes between China and Japan, or China and the Philippines, but would you believe the US and Canada are in a boundary dispute too — over an uninhabited island in the Gulf of Maine.

The Dalai Lama prohibits his followers from praying to what he considers the malevolent deity of Dorje Shugden. But adherents of this practice, many of them western converts, say the Tibetan religious leader is guilty of persecution.

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03/30/2015 - 4:15pm

Purvi Patel is the second pregnant woman in Indiana to be charged under the state's law against "feticide," a law originally passed to protect pregnant women from harm. Patel was sentenced Monday to face up to 20 years in prison, in a case has alarmed advocates for women and immigrants.

The conversation about events in Ferguson involves race, but maybe not in the way you think. While a new study showed that most white Americans don't have non-white friends, many people say it shouldn't be taken as an indicator of personal racism but rather large-scale issues that deserve the real attention.

In 1950, singles were just 22 percent of the adult population. Now, they've taken over. More than half of American adults are single, and that may have some surprising benefits — from the way people join civic groups and socialize to how they take part in the lives of their hometowns.

Not long after the shooting in Charleston, a US House of Representatives committee rejected a measure that would have allowed the CDC to conduct research into gun violence, leaving intact a ban pushed by the NRA back in the 1990s.

Saudi Arabia may be the only country where women aren't allowed to drive, but it’s not the only place where woman are forbidden from getting behind the wheel. It even happens in some communities in the US.

Guatemala halted international adoptions years ago, because the process had become so corrupted. But there are still a lot of unanswered questions about adoptions that went through in the past, and about one highly controversial case in particular.

It was a rare political moment: the US Secretary of State paying a compliment to Cuba. But that’s what happened Friday when John Kerry commended Cuba's role in West Africa, where the island nation has sent more health workers than any other country — and plans to send even more in the coming weeks.

Not long after the shooting in Charleston, a US House of Representatives committee rejected a measure that would have allowed the CDC to conduct research into gun violence, leaving intact a ban pushed by the NRA back in the 1990s.

Updated

05/08/2015 - 1:30pm

Taco al pastor, the classic Mexican street food that’s popular in the US, has roots in a surprising place: the Middle East. Thanks to immigrants from the former Ottoman Empire, the classic street dish of shawarma morphed into the beloved taco of today.

It's Nobel Prize season. While scientists throughout the world will be awarded this prestigious prize, there's a good chance all of their research was written up in English. Michael Gordin, a professor of the history of science at Princeton, wrote a new book, "Scientific Babel" that explores the intersection of the history of language and science.

Grand juries decided not indict the police officers who killed Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The decision enraged many Americans, who questioned why the incidents didn't deserve an open trial — exactly the reason why the UK, the originator of grand juries, abolished its own system long ago.

The military picked up plenty of slang and phrases over the course of its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and pretty much all of it is unprintable or unknown to people who didn't serve. Here are a few choice terms that you can put to use.

Updated

03/30/2015 - 4:15pm

Purvi Patel is the second pregnant woman in Indiana to be charged under the state's law against "feticide," a law originally passed to protect pregnant women from harm. Patel was sentenced Monday to face up to 20 years in prison, in a case has alarmed advocates for women and immigrants.

After a "Muhammad cartoon contest" came under attack over the weekend, Texas imam Omar Suleiman is glad he and other Muslim leaders urged their followers to leave the event alone. Ignoring extremists — both the anti-Muslim crowd and radical Islamists alike — is the best policy, he says.

A new exhibition opened on Friday in Plymouth, Massachusetts, telling the story of how Europeans raided the area for slaves long before the Pilgrims arrived. The exhibit was made by a Native American crew, giving them the chance to tell their peoples' story.

Nikola Tesla was a visionary and a recluse with a genius for invention. He's also a hero in Serbia, where an author has created a new fictional account of Tesla's incredible life and many achievements.

Whether it’s driving five miles over the speed limit or breezing past a stop sign on your bike, chances are, we have all broken a few — or more — rules of the road. When it comes to obeying traffic laws, “we’re all criminals,” says the author of this survey.